Cathedrals, Statues, Market, and Landmarks: Day 2 Budapest

 Legend is that Budapest was originally founded over two thousand or so years ago when a people from the Urals of East Asia followed a bird to the perfect place to live.

  When the bird stopped, the pilgrims stopped and that is why Budapest (pronounced Buda Pesht) is where it now located.  A bird, to commemorate the event is atop spire of the Cathedral of St. Matthias up on Castle Hill above the colorful tile roof.  This was only one of many of the beautiful, historical places we visited today.  When our tour around the two parts of the city, Buda and Pest, was over at lunch time, we felt we had a clearer idea of just how diverse and beautiful the old city is, plus we had enjoyed our views of the Danube river

which flows between the two parts connected by many lovely bridges built down through the centuries.

We drove down the Hungarian equivalent of the Champs de Elysses, saw statues of the heroes from St. Stephen, the uprising of 1848 and 1956, the majestic parliament building,

one of the two tallest buildings in the city, a train station designed by Eiffel, and visited the majestic cathedral up on Castle Rock which still has its original stained glass windows because someone had the forethought to remove them and place them in protective crates at the beginning of World War II.

We saw the largest synagogue in Europe, and the square commemorating the earliest heroes of the country.

My head is buzzing trying to keep all the places straight!

On the way back to the hotel, we saw the young people who are participating in a world wide swimming competition starting today lining up on the street to practice their opening march with all of the flags of the nations.  A lot is going on in this city of two million people!

In the afternoon we walked past the station designed and built by Gustave Eiffel to catch the Hop on Hop off bus to the large Central Market Hall.  As we circled around the city, we saw many of the places we had seen in the morning as we enjoyed the view atop our double decker bus.

Covered markets are found in each of the districts of the city, but this is the oldest and largest.  It did not disappoint with items ranging from fresh meats to lovely handcrafted needlework.  Klep found a cap to protect his head from the bright sunshine.

We were fascinated by the variety of items in the multistoried old building.

To finish off our day, we took a taxi to a traditional Hungarian restaurant, Firkasz Kavehaz Etteriem where we enjoyed food using the national vegetable of Hungary, paprika.  We Americans think of paprika  as a spice, but it is a spice or seasoning which comes from a vegetable and is actually much higher in vitamin C than orange juice.  Needless to say, we dined well and enjoyed our entertainment, a piano player who switched over to the accordion to serenade us with the Blue Danube Waltz among other old romantic favorites.

Our sore feet and tired legs were happy to ride back to the hotel.  We rest up tonight for our final day in Budapest tomorrow.  After all, this city is built over hot springs and it is time for us to enjoy the restorative powers of one of them!